Zenbook U500 Announced: 15.6" HD IPS, GT650M, Quad-Core i7...

Maybe apple isn´t that expensive for what it offers.
When companies try to compete in the same market, things turn out to be just as expensive as them.

Hope Asus gets it right and catch enough market to continue building this kinda computers more cheaper.
Gonna wait for Haswell, my computer still works and need to focus on study ;P

As for throttling, we only have a review of a pre-sample and by the temperatures it seems it won´t really be a problem as long as we take some measures.
The only instance of throttling was when he played for 2 hours some crysis 2 on a glass(heat isolator) table with turboboost on during summer, that seems pretty much the most extreme it could get.

 

Yea, correct. Some TN screens show better gamut, better delta, more brightness and similar contrast/black levels just in exchange to a little less viewing angles. Lets see and hope.

 

Well, if it will come less than $1300, I will buy it immediately

 

hahaha not going to happen. 1300 was never into their consideration the price is too low, the R&D for the mobo alone adds a lot to the cost. If you go for a more standardized design its easy to reach that price point, if you have to make a lot of modifications to the mobo, the price increase for that. And thats for the mobo alone.

 

i just bought and returned a DV6T and it came with the new Windows 8 keyboard. I guess HP is more ready than others for the upgrade

 

Wow, "less than 1300$"... Seems we have a dreamer between us...
This will not happen (unfortunately ), as can you see in previous pages, Price start from 1800€ and 2000$

 

I was looking at the Envy 15 prior to finding about this, but now I'm not sure...Envy 15 has superior cooling (or so it seems) but it's also thicker and has a worse graphics card. On the other hand, the envy is considerably cheaper

 

haha there is no doubt the envy has superior cooling and there is like a 10% difference between the cards. thickness for me doesnt matter much also when its down to an in (i have seen the rmbp and its not that much difference) what i would buy the zenbook for is the weight difference, the option for 2 harddrives, and i just find the zenbook look very sexy. but is that worth the $1k difference (if thats what the differnec eis gonna be). i wouldnt say so. maybe others agree.

 

Opinions on Zenbook u500 vs Razer Blade V2?

 

go zenbook blade is over hyped, and under powered and will prolly throttle (havent seen any reviews yet)

 

Yep, the Blade is over-hyped. Also look at the rMBP as an alternative.

 

how is it possible that this has the same LG screen as the Sony S15, but it doesnt have orangegate. Does this mean it is possible to get a fix on the S15 without changing the hardware (after all these both have the same panel)

 

I think LG must have done something to the panel. It's possible that the new S15 models won't be effected either but not sure whether people who already own the S15 would be able to get Sony to replace their screens.

 

the new envy panel doesnt have the orangegate issue and it has same model number and it is from lg

 

Meanwhile, Samsung has just presented the new 840 series:

Samsung 840 Pro SSD: More Speed, Less Power, And Toggle-Mode 2.0 : Samsung 840 Pro: A New SSD Flagship

here a review of 840 Pro 256GB:
AnandTech - Samsung SSD 840 Pro (256GB) Review

here a review of 840 PRO 512GB:
Samsung 840 Pro 512GB SSD Review - Performance, Value, Battery Life and Untouchable IOPS - The SSD Review


I would prefer that Asus was using this 840 PRO series instead of the SSDs of SanDisk.

 

I prefer the 830 - 256gb for 150 € and you won't notice any speed difference ;-) I am not sure if you could measure the difference of power consumption in a real-world test either.

 

I dont know if this was mentioned yet but this laptop does have the windows 8 keyboard as you can see in the picture.

 

Someone had some doubts on that.
Good to see that instead it's okay.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

for very cheap you could exclude the dual hdd thing, if you don't mind the slot for dvd drive intact. 30$ caddy, half an hour's work and you've got dual hdd.
i guess with such cooling , i will be able to OC the 7750m to the gt650m level.

but today i first time held vx32 something in my arms. god it is beautiful! pictures don't do justice. it's just ubersexy, whilst my envy 14 is just a good attractive laptop.

anyone care to explain me what the throttling is?

 

In terms of bang for the buck the 2012 Envy would be a nice alternative since the orange-gate is fixed but it is not available in Germany, nor in UK....who know why? :-/

 

In Italy on August is appeared HP Envy 17 3290el (3612QM+7850m price 1100€), but from only one supplier and after ended the availability (Maybe 7 notebooks) is disappeared it.
I can't find in Europe any Envy 17 32XX.
It's still present in HP Italy site, but when you check for more info appear others HP laptops, seems as HP has retired from the sale

It's funny that the HP division that takes care of the PC sale is in crisis, and although this does not seem that HP amounts to sell PC...

 

You should change your preferences, 840 will cost 170€ with higher IOPS and 5Y warranty so alot more for only 20 euros.

 

Are you sure that 170€ is price for 840 Pro and not for 840 standard?
Only PRO has 5Y warranty.

 

yeah i know about switching the dvd drive to hdd but for right now my harddrive is sufficient. I don't use much space as of right now. maybe that will change in the future. I'm just waiting for ssd prices to drop a bit more and then ill just pick u a 512 gb one.

i do find the zenbooks the sexiest laptops. next would be the new dell xps in looks then envy. that would probably be the main reason i would switch to it but the pricing is going to be killer.

 

What are you guys going to do about warranty?

With my XPS if the motherboard craps out in 3 years I know Dell will swap it out no problem....What about this? Never owned an Asus before and this one is set to cost allot so I want to be protected

Apple = Apple Care
Dell = XPS Care
Asus = ??

 

there is always a care pack thing if u buy directly from dealer but i dont think asus sells directly. i would get the foursquare or square trade warranty whatever it is. I think its replacement or money back or something i forget what.

 

Asus is one of the few companies that offers two year warranty on some of their laptops. Mine N61jq came with two years. Considering this is a premium class hopefully they'll do it for this one as well. And you can get an additional year of warranty if you buy it with Visa card. Has to be a specific type of Visa, there are few different types that will give you that benefit.

 

As far as I know 840 pro has the RRP of 269$ (208 euro). My sources indicating 170 euro on amazon.

In case of Asus warranty, nothing compares to Dell next day warranty even if they use refurbished parts.
You have to send your laptop to Asus, pay for the postage with some insurance and wait a week or more for the laptop to return. There is no next day service and the engineer will not come to your place. I will not be surprise it replacing any parts inside (SSD, memory) will void Asus warranty.

 

Replacing components like SSD and memory does not void warranty. Unless you're replacing a soldered component.

 

Interesting... Where can I read more about this possibility?

Well, if the warranty is the one provided with L521x I say "no thanks". If you read the thread it's more a next week rather than a next day warranty (and this when spare parts are available....)
And for the 3-year you have to pay + 270€ (180 when it's discounted), which is way more expensive than replacing a mobo..
Besides, you'll have to lose a day of work to wait the technician to come to your house, assuming that:
- he actually comes (not granted at all)
- he has the right tools to do the job (i.e. right screwdriver)
- he knows how to open the laptop (not granted)
- he doesn't break anything otherwise he will have to come a second time (another work day lost)
- he doesn't come to make useless workarounds that won't solve your problem, just to satisfy burocracy (i.e. L521x still replacing display/wifi cards...)
and in the L521x Owners Lounge there are many not-so-lucky experiences with at least one of the above problems, which all imply other days of work lost

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

Not sure whether it applies internationally. I know for a fact that the extended warranty through Visa works in US and Canada. Try looking it up or call Visa to inquire. Here's a link to a Canadian visa, it's the second benefit.

 

Thank you very much, I'll search if there is something like that in Italy too! If I find something, I'll post here for those interested

 

Many cards ( Visa and MC) in Canada offers 2x(initial term) but up to 12 months extended warranty.

Thank you for reminding me about card option

 

You have never had an enterprise class notebook have you? Its one of those things that you get and when you need it you are extremely thankful for that decision.

Your would be experience is based on a notebook that is a failure, with technicians trying to solve design problems, of course its not going to work.

Also, there are some people that say asus warranty is terrible, it is. I have only met one person that had a good experience.

 

I've had great experiences with ASUS Tech Support - I've been fortunate in that I used to work a 10 minute walk from the Canadian Support Office in Markham and even now I live a 15 minute drive away from it - more than once I've let them know I am going to take it in for servicing, walked up to the counter and handed it over (along with my receipt), sat down or checked out the displays in the showroom and they've gone to the back and 5 minutes later I had it handed back to me with a new panel perfectly installed. They're human and mistakes can happen, but I've had good experiences and I've made sure to let friends know who buy ASUS that they can take it up there and it's worked out well for the couple that have actually needed it. The three reasons I went up there my screen would flicker when I would use it at 10% brightness or lower (even options from 100-0, with 0 being backlight off entirely) - none of the other laptops I've seen lately seem to even go that low anymore - and the other reasons were dead pixels and an accent light not lighting up on the back of my G51Jx's panel (turned out that submodel didn't).

If I had to ship it and all the rest it wouldn't be nearly as attractive an option - but as it is, being here in Toronto and knowing the support I've gotten in the past, I wouldn't hesitate to get another ASUS. Right now I'm actually really thinking to pick up a N56VZ instead now that I know the approximate price for this and the potential issues - I had thought it was the same CPU but it's 10% slower than the 56VZ and the graphics performance thus far in benches and real world usage is not noticeable between the 2GB DDR5 in this and the DDR3 in that.

I'd love the longer battery life (the bigger batt should do this), lighter weight (4.75lbs vs 6.0), better looking, thinner body and nicer screen (the IPS Matte) - but $1000 more - even $500 more - the risk of throttling and heat issues is greater (even with the slower CPU) and so many things are unknowns right now and I'd have to wait at least another month - it's getting hard to hold on...

 

Well, the Asus Canadian support center was known to have good service in 2010, not flawless, some Canadians still have horror stories, but it's something to take into account. I don't know if there has been any change since then.

 

Interesting, my experiences were from 2006-2011 at various times. Unless things have gone downhill in the past year - I hope not, I just recommended a friend take her's up there last week - the only different thing she told me is that apparently she had to package the laptop up in a box as though she were shipping it (possibly incase they'd have to ship it back to her for some reason). Now I'm curious, I think I will follow up with her and check how it went - but so far so good for me fortunately.

 

Can only talk about Europe, and asus tech support was pretty bad for me.
Send the laptop N43SL because the back light didn´t work and 3 weeks later was informed that there was no solution and should ask for a refund. Asked for a similar laptop but they could´t do that since it was bought from a reseller in Portugal.
finally a month later got my money back and guess what, bought another laptop, still asus, but with better support in case of damage, Fnac.

 

it will be noticable if u run games at 1080p

 

I assume you mean the DDR5 in the memory vs. DDR3 - would it be noticeable in the FPS in 1080p gaming? I've tried looking around to see but I haven't seen a difference in any of the game tests or benchmarks I've seen - possibly because of the bandwidth in the mobo from what I've read.

I know we don't have a U500 (or should we just call it the UX51 now? - Should we make the thread U500/UX51?) to test - but it'd be good if you have any results showing this from other systems - I'd be appreciative.

If I do order N56VZ It would take a week to get here and I'd have a 2 week return window - so I'd be happy to be proved wrong - if it's enough of a difference I'd jump right back on the band wagon .

Thanks,
Peter

 

its like a 20% difference in gaming between the two cards (ddr5vs ddr3) if you look it up. im about to take a nap so if u dont find any ill show u it. the reason benchmarks look the same (the ddr3 might seem faster in some cases) is because most standardized benchmarks are run at 720p where the ddr5 doesnt make much of a difference. the ddr3 is clocked around 100 mhz i believe so that makes it faster at 720p.

--------------

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...9-gt650m-ddr3-vs-gddr5-difference-tested.html


there is one of the many things out there haha.

 

Interesting - two things though, it doesn't mention these were 1080p systems or what resolution it was run at and the system with the DDR3 was also paired with a slower i5 processor.

I know there is more info on the Chinese site it references, I'd be curious to see more about it - I should look up the clock speeds on the N56Vz and the scores and compare - would be good to have more though, but thanks for that.

Thanks,
Peter

 

The very first post in this thread now lists the weight at 4.7 lbs. Mike, is this accurate? Or just a space filler? If it is I think I will go with the vaio s15 as it is lighter and probably much cheaper.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

Does anybody know if this zenbook comes with the sleeve just like the previous ones? Im just wondering because I didnt see one in the unboxing. I didnt see a little pouch for the dongles either.

 

Quick replies:

Yes 4.74lbs comes from the official weight of 2.15kg listed on various retailers.

No there is no sleeve, someone asked that here and on youtube I think.

On the GDDR5 vs. DDR3 front:

Nvidia GT 650M GDDR5 vs DDR3 - what is the diff?

"Some game require more processing power(which is based on Core clock speed) rather than memory bandwidth( which is based on memory type and memory speed)...lol

DDR3 version only got 28.8GB/s memory bandwidth, but default core clock speed already hit 835MHz, can be boost until 950MHz
GDDR5 version got 64.0GB/s memory bandwidth, but default core clock speed only 745MHz, can be boost until 885MHz
And pixel filtrate and texture filtrate of DDR3 version is higher than GDDR5 version(which is 13.4GPixel/s, 26.7GTexel/s VS 11.9 GPixel/s, 23.8GTexel/s)

These information is taken from my Y480 and my friend's N56Vz

---

ctually processing power more important unless u play all d games at fhd.. then maybe memory is more impt

is the ddr3 pxl n txt fil rate higher cause of the core speed? what if both core speed is the same? i think gddr5 still better?

also i think gddr5 release more heat right? "

etc..

That tells me why you would think Full HD gaming would be better because of the memory bandwidth. But the core clock is higher and that can be more important in some instances for just about everything else - I think people found the GDDR5 ran slightly hotter and took more power if I recall - I remember reading up on this a few weeks ago when I was comparing another set of laptops (before the U500 was introduced and put everything on hold for me).

Hmmmm

Thanks,
Peter

 

Thanks ccz. Disappointing about the weight. I was dreaming of around 4 lbs. Can u give me a link to one of the online retailers?

Thanks

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

Hey Jako you willing to give us the actual source yet?

What's funny is I find more references to 2.15kg for the Toshiba U500 than the ASUS U500/UX51VZ. Did I just lie here Jako?

Thanks,
Peter

 

Here you go: X-Kom.pl

 

Thanks - I remembered seeing it around but then just now to make sure I did a search on google for U500/UX51VZ and 2.15kg and found almost nothing - but 2,15kg matches a lot .

 

I can see the UX51VZ dropping in price within a few months. Well, most Windows laptops do anyway. Although the laptop is probably going to be great, I don't think this is going to be as successful as Asus is expecting. For this price, most people would prefer to spend an extra $50 for a Retina.